Product Description
This glorious state-by-state panorama of America's past and present helps young readers understand how the development of each state fits into the grand mosaic of America's history.Graphic delights greet the eye with every turn of the page.Includes a reference section, maps, a glossary, and an index. ... Read more

Product Description
Surveys the people, geography, and history of the state that is known for the huge amounts of silver once mined there. ... Read more

Product Description
The history and geology of the Mother Lode GoldCountry of California were well documented in numerous governmentmineral resource surveys throughout the century.This book compilesdata from those reports, long unavailable, in a concise, convenientedition that concentrates on gold placer, hydraulic, and driftmines-giving location information as well as history and pastproduction figures.Covering the mines of the Mother Lode, it alsoincludes the other gold-producing counties of the southern andnorthern Sierra Nevada range, and the dredging areas of the American,Feather, and Yuban Rivers.More than twenty county maps, this is thecomplete guide to prospecting the Gold Country ofCalifornia. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

PLACER GOLD DEPOSITS IF THE SIERRA NEVEDA
I injoyed this book very much and got a lot of good information from it. ... Read more

Product Description
Professional biologist and conservationist Sessions Wheeler begins with the prehistory and geology of the desert regions and brings the reader to present day.He provides modern sightseeing "trail drivers" with information on the historical and recreational areas. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

first hand accounts of life in the old west
"The Nevada Desert" is another quality read by Sessions S. Wheeler. If you're familiar with Wheeler's other work like "the Desert Lake," you already know that the author likes to inject original sources. After doing a lifetime of research and analysis on the desert experience, the idea behind this title is to publish a book of the most interesting primary documents. Chapter topics include the Forty-Mile Desert, the Black Rock, the Mojave, Gold Mining and Ranching. The initial chapter offers a brief history and overview of the State. The next chapter looks at the Forty-Mile Desert, a difficult wagon road for early emigrants. The actual stretch is east of Reno in the north-western part of Nevada. As one of the most compelling narratives in the book, Sarah Royce retells the chronology of her family's Forty-Mile hardship. The next chapter is a look at the Black Rock. Much of the section looks at the fighting with Native Americans. In terms of brutality and bloodshed, Wheeler believes that the great scale of these conflicts has not been fully appreciated. The Mojave chapter recounts the adventures of John C. Frémont. 'Memories of the Desert's Gold Seekers' offers entertaining stories of desert folk. Claude Laund's story about death and belated justice is a highlight. The ranching chapter focuses on John G. Taylor, a cattle baron. "The Nevada Desert" is generally successful as a Sessions Wheeler book with more primary sources and less interpretation. The Indian Wars section wanders and the John G. section offers too many, similar accounts of the same man. So while the dynamic usually works well, there are cases when Wheeler should have been more assertive as an editor. At the end of the day, I'm not sure that I wouldn't have just preferred to read a conventional book by Sessions Wheeler. Combining quality research, artistry as a writer and passion for his subject, Wheeler inspires faith that when he writes about a topic, it will contain the essential information. The book has something many similarly minded titles lack -a good map with details that connect the reader with the geography. The inclusion of copious black and white photographs help to tell the story of those who lived so long ago. All in all, "the Nevada Desert" offers first hand accounts of what the Silver State was like back in the olden days. ... Read more

Product Description
From Toxicodendron diversilobum (poison oak) to Zannichellia palustris (horned pondweed), this book will help every outdoor enthusiast identify, and possibly avoid certain plants in the Sierra. Covers wildflowers, ferns, shrubs, and trees. This edition strictly follows the nomenclature presented in The Jepson Manual as the basis for scientific names. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A brief comment
Like many major mountain ranges, the Sierra Nevada has a unique flora, and I've found this to be a useful guide in learning about it. It has good descriptions of the plants, but the photos are often not the best--at least in the volume I have--but they're still good enough to work with. Perhaps the plates were just getting old. It is, however, reasonably complete, and compact enough to be portable. It contains a great deal of useful information, such as species lists, some basic ecology of the sierras, and as I said, the species descriptions. Overall, it's a good book for the already fairly competent amateur, but if you're a beginner, you should probably look elsewhere since this book presumes too much previous knowledge.

Great flora of the Sierras
This is the 1st flora I grab when I'm hiking in the Sierras and I've used them all extensively.I've used it to successfully ID several hundred plants.It requires and average amount of technical skill to use, nothing that a serious amateur could easily master.The flora seems very complete for any plant you find over 4,000 foot elevation--it won't help as much if you're in the foothills.An amateur may want to supplement with a Sierran plant book with photos since the line drawings in this book are simple and only illustrate a single representative genus (every genus is illustrated).

Disappointing
This book is valuable because it's complete and compact enough to carry in a backpack. Unfortunately, it has enough drawbacks that I wish someone else would write a better book to compete with it.
One example of its problems is when I tried to use it to identify a daisy. The index showed no listing for daisy, so I looked through the Aster family section the hard way, and eventually found the genus Erigeron (which turned out to be indexed under "wild daisy"). Unlike most genera, the book only provides a key for this genus, and omits the usual species description that includes things like plant height that I rely on to confirm the guesses that I make from the key.
I've found an unusually large number of anomalies where I suspect the book is simply wrong. For instance, it says Lupinus adsurgens leaflets are 2-5 mm long, whereas Jepsen says they're 20-50 mm long (I suspect Jepsen is right).
Experienced botanists will find this book to be a worthwhile supplement to Jepsen. Amateurs should look elsewhere, and probably settle for something that only tries to cover the most interesting flowers.

Another Press Run Please
This book is great.It is a concise reference on an interesting flora.The botanical keys are easy enough for amateurs to use and for professionals to key plants from memory.The size and weight make it easy to include in a backpack or field press, although I would like a hardback for my reference shelf.This book is valuable to anyone interested in natural history of the region.

A Sierra Nevada Flora Reviewed
I found this book to be a great help identifying plants in the field. Most can be identified without magnification. Plants are identified usingdichotomous keys.

I also use The Jepson Manual, Higher Plants ofCalifornia and the old Munz's. But both are heavy and difficult to use inthe field for many of the genera though I did use them when I got home tocheck my identifications.The second great feature of this book is thatthe plants are specific to the area that I was traveling through.I didn'thave to separate out plants that only live in the desert or at the coast. Eliminating that many choices made the effort much easier.

I recommendthe book heartily, understanding the plants and animals around us greatlyenhances the experience of enjoying nature.

Many of the plants that Ifound can be seen at californiagardens.com ... Read more

Product Description
Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "Nevada," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Nevada in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Nevada when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name Nevada, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. ... Read more

Product Description
Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "Nevada," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Nevada in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Nevada when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name Nevada, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. ... Read more

Product Description
Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "Nevada," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Nevada in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Nevada when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name Nevada, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Nicely done
An excellent value.Beautiful photographs, with concise text on natural history, including geologic formation, human history, ecology, climate, and flora and fauna.A well balanced, informative introduction to the region. I plan on buying more from Wuerthner. ... Read more